The present invention is directed to a picture frame that has a decorative cover.
A picture frame includes a frame with an opening through which a picture can be viewed. The frame may have cover made of leather or another useful or decorative material. One of the problems with such frames is that the cover is difficult to attach to the frame in a manner that is attractive. If the cover extends around the interior edge of the opening, the cover must be cut at the corners of the opening. Unless such cuts are made with great precision, overlapping seams or gaps in coverage may degrade the appearance of the cover. Indeed, from a practical standpoint, the required precision cannot be achieved cost effectively.
This problem is illustrated, by way of example, in FIG. 1 that shows a rear view of a frame 12 with a cover 14 folded around an interior edge 16 of the picture opening 18 and attached to a bottom 20 of the frame 12 (the front of the frame 12 is not shown). Unless the interior corners of the cover 14 are precisely aligned and cut, gaps 24 or overlapping seams 26 will appear at the corners of the interior edge 16 when viewed from the front of the frame 12.
Another problem of the prior art picture frames is that the cover may separate from the frame at the bottom of the frame so that a flap of loose edge appears in the opening. This is, of course, most unattractive and decreases the useful life of the picture frame.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel picture frame and method that avoids the problems of the prior art.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel picture and frame and method in which a substrate for the frame has a stepped wall that covers an interior edge of the picture opening and holds the cover on the frame at the interior edge.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a novel picture frame that includes a frame with a cover thereon, where the frame has an opening through which a picture can be viewed, where an annular substrate has an interior peripheral wall with plural steps ascending from the substrate and extending into the opening, where a riser of an upper step abuts the interior edge of the opening to hold the cover between the riser and the frame, and where a flat of a lower step abuts the bottom of the frame to hold the cover between the flat and the frame.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel method of making a picture frame that includes the step of casting a single-piece annular substrate having an interior peripheral wall with plural steps ascending from the substrate and extending into the opening in the frame, and connecting the substrate to the frame so that a riser of a top one of the steps abuts the interior edge of the opening to hold the cover between the riser and the frame and so that a flat of a bottom one of the steps abuts the bottom of the frame to hold the cover between the flat and the frame.
These and other objects of the invention will apparent from the detailed description of the invention that follows and the attached drawings.